Sixers' Young wants to talk future with team in June

Thaddeus Young signs his sneakers after the Sixers’ final home game of the season, a 113-108 win over Boston Monday at the Wells Fargo Center. Young had career-highs in scoring, assists and steals this year. (AP Photo/Michael Perez)

MIAMI — Thaddeus Young has a plan.

His immediate action was to board a plane Wednesday night, after the 76ers’ season finale, and head back to Philadelphia with his teammates. Thursday, Young is slated to participate in an exit interview with coaches and front-office types, and then hop a flight bound for Memphis, where he lives in the offseason.

Young has another plan, too. That one is two months away.

The seventh-year forward said he’d like to arrange a meeting with Sixers coach Brett Brown and general manager Sam Hinkie following the NBA Draft, which takes place June 26. The subject matter of that closed-doors meeting: his future with the Sixers.

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“I wouldn’t want to discuss anything until after June,” Young said. “It’s been a crazy season. Of course, I have to sit down with Brett and Sam at my exit meeting. As far as anything else being said, I probably wouldn’t want to sit down until after the draft.”

Young, contractually, is under control for next season and holds a player option for the season after that.

According to Brown and Hinkie on separate occasions, Young factors into the Sixers’ rebuilding plans. He’s the lone veteran holdover of a trade-deadline roster purge that sent Evan Turner and Lavoy Allen to Indiana and Spencer Hawes to Cleveland. In that role, Young has succeeded. He’s the voice of a Sixers locker room that features six rookies and four second-year players. And the Sixers’ decision to keep him here, at least through the end of this season, counts for something.

“It says a lot,” Young said. “It says they have a lot of respect for me as a player, as a leader and (someone) that can help build and help these young guys.

“But like I said, I’ve always wanted to win. That’s always been my case and I’m definitely sticking to that. We have to sit down, discuss everything and discuss different situations and scenarios and take it to the summer.”

Young finished the season with personal-best averages in scoring, assists and steals. Not since his first two seasons has he been given such a long leash to improve his outside game, taking more 3-pointers than he had in any of his seasons.

Mostly, he’s played the part of the good soldier. He doesn’t make waves. He doesn’t get upset publicly. He doesn’t mouth off to reporters about his unenviable position, as a player spending one of his best years with a team in tank mode.

Young made $8.6 million this season. He’s due to earn $9.16 million next season. And he holds a player option worth $9.72 million for the 2015-16 campaign.

Those salary figures complicate Young’s future. They make him difficult to trade, unless the Sixers were willing to take on a player with a hefty salary in return, should that be a path Young pursues when meeting with Brown and Hinkie. They also represent a lot of figures to leave on the table, should Young remain on the team through next season before accepting an early-termination option on that final year of his deal.

Those will be decisions for Young and the Sixers to make in the future. In the here and now, Young said this season has taken its toll.

“At the end of every season,” he said, “players are not going to feel up to par physically. Me personally, I feel good. I’ve been in the treatment room, getting worked on, just making sure I stay healthy. Mentally, it’s been very, very crazy. A roller-coaster ride, up and down.

“It definitely is the toughest season. … This is definitely not the season I imagined. At the end of the day, guys got better. They had the right approach around the locker room. There was a lot of growth within the coaches and we’re just ready to get to the summer, enjoy ourselves and try to come back for next season ready to go.”

Whether Young is with the Sixers next season is anyone’s guess.

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NOTES: Adonis Thomas made his first career start, replacing Hollis Thompson in the starting five at the small forward spot. … Arnett Moultrie, who recently returned from a drug suspension, said he hadn’t yet spoken with Brett Brown regarding his future with the team.